A Sparkle of Silver

A Sparkle of Silver by Liz Johnson  368 pages

Millie Sullivan works as a waitress, trying to support herself and her grandmother, who is a nursing home suffering from dementia. But she’s behind in her payments. Their world is turned upside when the director of the nursing home gives Millie Grandma Joy’s ninety-day notice. Millie isn’t sure where to turn.

One afternoon, out of the blue, Grandma mentions a treasure is hidden away at the 1920s mansion, The Chateau once the wealthiest estates in Georgia. During this brief moment of what appears to be lucidity, she makes three other claims: 1) that her mother (Millie’s great-grandmother) was a guest there during its heyday; 2) that Grandma was conceived during that period (making Grandpa not really Grandpa); and 3) Great-Grandma left a diary at The Chateau that contains a diary leading to the treasure.

This could be the answer to Millie’s prayers. If she can located that treasure she can get Grandma into a facility that can care for her as she deserves. Luckily for Millie, old mansion is a historical attraction that gives tours. She quickly gets a job there.

One evening while hunting for the diary, she is caught by Ben, one of the attraction’s security officers. Ben has his own set of financial problems, working three jobs to right a wrong his mother committed. Millie quickly explains why she is searching an off-limits section of the house and offers him half of whatever she finds if he doesn’t turn her in.

The search begins. Millie finds Great-Grandma’s diary, but there are no secret maps. Then she learns that there is a second diary. The treasure hunt continues along with a budding romance between Millie and Ben.

This is a fun story, light hearted, a dashing romance, and family intrigue. I loved reading some of the entries on Great-Grandma’s diary, seeing what life among the wealthy was like the weekend before the last weekend before October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday). Sometimes two of the main  characters in Great-Grandma’s life were hard to keep straight, and that is why  “A Sparkle of Silver” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Marauders

 

The Marauders by Tom Cooper        320 pages

A little over five years has passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and lower Louisiana. Bayou residents are feeling the effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill. BP says the oil hasn’t hurt the environment, but the shrimpers and the other fisherman know better. They are barely, barely eeking out a living.

Author Tom Cooper’s first novel centers around seven characters with a setting in the bayous and swamps of Barataria and the small town of Jeanette, basically suburbs of New Orleans. First there are the Toup brothers. Identical twins Reginald and Victor are drug dealers with a rather large field of marijuana growing on of the remote islands in the swamp. They do whatever they need to do keep their secret safe, even if it involves murder and stealing a man’s prosthetic arm to keep in him line.

Then readers are introduced to Gus Lindquist. A one-armed, OxyContin-dependent shrimper, he is about to give up on shrimping. As the shrimp dwindle in the oil-soaked waters, Lindquist re-focuses his attention on a boyhood dream: searching the swamp for pirate Jean Lafitte’s long-lost treasure.

Next come Cosgrove and Hanson, two petty criminals who meet doing community service. They desperately seeking any get-rich, half-brained idea they come across.  There’s the teenager Wes Trench, eighteen years-old and still reeling from his mother’s death during Katrina. Finally, there is the BP middleman, Brady Grimes, who is trying to get the residents of the area to take BP’s meager settlement offer. Until he has to face his own mother.

Cooper weaves the stories; each character or set of characters acting out a mini-novel of their own, but as the stories merge, something more sinister and dangerous begins to appear. At times hilarious and at others deeply profound, the novel is compulsive reading. I was eager to learn what kind of mess(es) these good ol’ boys could get themselves into.

I received this novel for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review. 

        

I give The Marauders 5 out of 5 stars.